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Jeffty Is Five / Harlan Ellison
"Jeffty Is Five" is a fantasy short story by American writer Harlan Ellison. History The story was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1977, then was included in DAW's The 1978 Annual World's Best SF in 1978 and Ellison's short story collection Shatterday 2 years later. According to Ellison, it was partially inspired by a fragment of conversation that he mis-heard at a party at the home of actor Walter Koenig: "How is Jeff?" "Jeff is fine. He's always fine," which he perceived as "Jeff is five, he's always five." Additionally, Ellison based the character of Jeffty on Joshua Andrew Koenig, Walter's son. }} Synopsis Jeffty is a boy who never grows past the age of 5 — physically, mentally, or chronologically. The narrator, Jeffty's friend from the age of five well into adulthood, discovers that Jeffty's radio plays new episodes of long-canceled serial programs, broadcast on radio stations that no longer exist. He can buy all-new issues of long-discontinued comic books such as The Shadow and Doc Savage, and of long-discontinued pulp magazines with new stories by long-dead authors like Stanley G. Weinbaum, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Robert E. Howard. Jeffty can even watch films that are adaptations of old pulp fiction novels like Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man. The narrator is privy to this world because of Jeffty's trust, while the rest of the world (the world that grew as Jeffty did not) is not. When Jeffty's world and the "real" world intersect, Jeffty loses his grip on his own world, eventually meeting a tragic end. Critical reception Publishers Weekly called it "touching but scary",The Essential Ellison: A 35-Year Retrospective, at Publishers Weekly; reviewed January 1, 1987; retrieved February 26, 2017 and Tor.com called it "heartbreaking",3 Quick Ways to Introduce Yourself to the Work of Harlan Ellison, by Ryan Britt, at Tor.com; published May 27, 2012; retrieved February 26, 2017 while at the SF Site, Paul Kincaid described it as "a wonder of sustained nostalgia coupled with despair at the modern world", but noted that it "only really succeeds because of the tragedy of its ending."[https://www.sfsite.com/10a/sd257.htm Shatterday, by Harlan Ellison], reviewed by Paul Kincaid, at the SF Site; published 2007; retrieved February 26, 2017 Recognition "Jeffty is Five" won the 1977 Nebula Award for Best Short StoryNebula Award Winners 1965-2011, at Science Fiction Writers of America; retrieved February 26, 2017and the 1978 Hugo Award for Best Short Story,1978 Hugo Awards , at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved February 26, 2017 and was nominated for the 1978 World Fantasy Award-Short Fiction.Nominees, at the World Fantasy Convention; retrieved February 26, 2017 It was also voted in a 1999 online poll of Locus readers1999 Locus Poll, at Locus Online (via archive.org) as the best short story of all time. References External links Category:Hugo Award for Best Short Story winning works Category:Short stories by Harlan Ellison Category:1977 short stories Category:Works originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Category:Nebula Award for Best Short Story-winning works Category:Fantasy short stories Category:Locus Award for Best Short Story winning works